The following is a summary of attendance and discussion from our first book club meeting. It is meant to be used for informational purposes only. It is not meant as a procedural guide. Our wicked awesome book club is not liable for any mishaps you may encounter by following our methodology.

Book Club Minutes: Meeting #1

Sunday, January 22nd, 2:00pm

General Attendance Notes:

First meeting of our book club, which is now officially known as “The 52240: A Book Club for the Ages”.

Hosted at Sophie’s house. She provided enough refreshments to feed a small army. Most of it was cheese. Because everyone loves cheese.

The club now has 8 official members (with “official” being defined as people added against their will to a Facebook group). Two members attended the first meeting (plus Sophie because she obviously had to be there since this was her stupid idea).

Sophie spent the 2 hours before the meeting wondering how early was too early to put out the cheese platter. She also sampled everything in advance to make sure it wasn’t poisonous. This is just basic hosting etiquette 101.

I’m stupidly proud of how beautiful and delicious this charcuterie board is. Also! The platter came from the 100-year old slate tile roof of my childhood library which is super awesome and very much in keeping with the bookish theme.

The two club members in attendance, Kelly and Geni, arrived at the same time. Everyone immediately sat on the couch as far away from each other as feasibly possible. Sophie did not remember to introduce the Kelly and Geni to each other until hours after the meeting ended so that’s her bad.

Book Discussion Notes:

We did actually discuss the book rather than only eating cheese and gossiping. So that counts as a win.

Two out of three of the attendees managed to finish the book by the meeting date, although everyone had started it. So that counts as 2/3 of a win. Right?

Kelly had already read the book. (Twice, apparently.)

Discussion Topic Notes:

Q: Has anyone actually met Larry Baker? Heard he lives here in town.

A: Nope, but Kelly’s husband has and he got his autograph so Kelly could fan-girl out over one of her fav authors.

Q: What was the deal with Frank the Psycho Dog?

A: Nobody knew. All those liberal arts college degrees and not a single one of us could figure out the metaphor.

I even added notations to my book and everything. My high school English teachers would be so proud.

Q: Why did the mother have to die?

A: (from Geni) What??? I haven’t gotten that far yet! She dies?

Q: What is the reason for the feud between Hubert and Turner West?

A: Turner West, a mortician, represents death, while Hubert represents energy and light and life. Metaphorically, they cannot exist so close to one another as such extreme opposites. Also, they’re both in love with the same woman and kind of act like buttheads about it.

Q: Is there a reason only the women go flying with the Judge?

A: This may have something to do with puberty. We’re not sure.

Q: What is the central theme of the book?

A: The impact that parents can have on their children, especially unintentionally, and how children perceive these influences. Abe constantly says that he is “his father’s son” despite being adopted. But based on his actions, he is actually more similar to his mother, based on his values and belief system. We often have a highly skewed view of ourselves that contrasts with how the rest of the world sees us.

~~~

Mostly I’m just happy that people showed up! It was a smaller group than I expected since Kayla decided to be a good parent and actually spend time with her kid (which now that I think about it is a very thematic decision based on our choice of book). Having people to discuss the book with both helped me pick up and finish a book that otherwise would have sat on my to-read list for years and gave me deeper insight and appreciation of the book itself.

It’s also proof that I definitely have friends! And I’m about 80% sure they weren’t just figments of my imagination.

Meet Sophie

Join me as I take on the challenge of figuring out what I like to do – the reason to be excited about coming home from work. The next time a new acquaintance asks me what I like to do in my free time, I won’t have to pretend to be an interesting person – I’ll actually be one!

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